New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said her administration would draft legislation to lower the country’s voting age to 16 after a groundbreaking legal ruling said the current age of 18 was discriminatory. Earlier Monday, New Zealand’s Supreme Court sided with a two-year campaign brought by youth activist group Make It 16, which argued that young people should be allowed a say on issues like climate change which will disproportionately affect their lives. “This is history,” Make It 16 campaign co-director Caeden Tipler said. “The government and parliament cannot ignore such a clear legal and moral message. They must let us vote.” Despite the ruling, a change to the voting age would need to be approved by 75 percent of New Zealand’s parliament. Only a few countries currently allow voting at 16, including Brazil, Cuba, and Austria.
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